


Friends From Work

by tessathompsonsbitch



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), thorbruce, thruce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-24
Updated: 2018-07-24
Packaged: 2019-06-15 15:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15416241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tessathompsonsbitch/pseuds/tessathompsonsbitch
Summary: Thor and Bruce are madly in love, but no one else can know. Can they go on with business as usual and keep their secret from the rest of their teammates?





	Friends From Work

**Author's Note:**

> Timeline-wise, let's just say this takes place after Ragnarok, if Infinity War never happened and everyone was a big happy family. Also, when I say "Avengers base," I mean the new place that they moved to from Avengers tower. I don't know what else to call it.

_Avengers Base_

            Bruce felt a tingle on the back of his neck, had the sudden feeling that someone was watching him. He looked up from his microscope and glanced around the lab, but there was no one there. Which made sense. Why would anyone else be in his lab so late? Tony had his own workspace, and he was at some launch party in the city anyway.

            Bruce shook it off and got back to work. He was just being paranoid.

            But then there was a crash to his right as something clattered onto the floor. Bruce jumped, knocking his microscope over and ruining his sample.

            “Look what you did!” he said to whoever had startled him. He looked around again and, still, there was no one.

            Now he was spooked. No one could get in who wasn’t supposed to be here. The security was too good for that.

            Right?

            “Who’s there?” Bruce called. Silence.

            He went to investigate the crash and found a Bunsen burner that had been knocked off the counter. He bent over to examine it, and a large figure sprang out of the shadows on the other side of the counter.

            Bruce shouted out and jumped back. He grabbed the Bunsen burner, trying to think of a way to defend himself without bringing the Big Guy into it and destroying the whole lab.

            And then the figure started laughing, a deep, hearty laugh that Bruce knew so well.

            “Ha ha, very funny,” he said, actually looking at the man standing before him for the first time.

            “I’m sorry,” Thor said through his laughter, “but it’s so easy to scare you, Banner.”

            Bruce thought to make a remark about his ruined sample, but he didn’t want to wipe the smile from Thor’s face. He could always get another sample. Tissue from interdimensional organic beings in the quantum realm wasn’t so rare.

            (It was. But Bruce didn’t care at the moment.)

            “You’re so mean to me,” he said, shaking his head, but he smirked.

            “I can’t help it. Your scared face is so cute.”

            Bruce felt his cheeks go warm. It had been months since he and Thor had admitted their feelings for each other back on Sakaar, but it still caught Bruce off guard when Thor said things like that.

            “Your embarrassed face is cute, too,” Thor said.

            Bruce didn’t know how to respond. He never did. He changed the subject.

            “What are you doing here? I thought you were on patrol duty tonight.”

             “I was,” Thor said. He came around the counter and pulled himself up to sit on it. “But I got bored. And I knew you would be in here working yourself to death, so…”

            “So you came to rescue me,” Bruce said.

            Thor smiled again.

            “Exactly.”

            “My hero.”

            Thor laughed and grabbed Bruce’s hand, pulling him closer.

            “I can think of a few things you could do right now that would be much more fun than working,” Thor said.

            Bruce felt an urgent warmth spreading through him, and he wanted to stoke the flame.

            “Like what?” he said breathlessly.

            “Like this.”

            Thor wrapped an arm around Bruce’s waist, pressing him even closer by the small of his back. Their lips met, and a giddy rush roared in Bruce’s head. For the most part, ever since Asgard, Bruce had a pretty good grip on the Hulk. But sometimes when Thor kissed him . . . it was hard not to lose control.

            “Stop,” Bruce said suddenly, pulling back.

            Thor’s eyebrows knit together as he looked down at Bruce.

            “What’s the matter?”

            “I can’t…”

            “Ah,” Thor said. “Our little green friend.”

            “If he were little, he wouldn’t be such a problem.”

            “It’s probably for the best.” Thor slid off the counter. “Someone might have seen us here.”

            Bruce sighed. The past few months had been amazing. He still couldn’t believe that someone as incredible as Thor—that a _god_ —could be in love with him, but somehow, Thor was. Every day, he made sure Bruce knew it. They were so happy. _So_ happy.

            But they had to keep their new relationship a secret. Who knew what would happen if everyone else found out? They would only get in the way, complicate this perfect thing he and Thor had built.

            So they tried to save the affectionate stuff for their private rooms. _Tried_. It was hard work when all Bruce wanted to do was run into Thor’s arms every time he saw him.

            Now they moved through the dark, silent halls. Bruce had forgotten about his work entirely. (Sample? What sample?)

            They had almost reached Thor’s room when they turned a corner and ran right into Sam. He wore a t-shirt and a pair of boxers, and he carried a plate stacked with slices of cold pizza.

            “Whoa!” Sam said, nearly spilling his plate.

            Nerves exploded in Bruce’s stomach.

            “Sam,” he said. For a moment, his mind was completely blank. He could think of nothing else to say. They just stared at each other in the darkness. Then: “Um. It’s late.”

            He wanted to rip his own tongue out for that.

            “Yeah,” Sam said, as if that were obvious. Because, of course, it was. “I wanted a snack.”

            “Oh,” Bruce said. “Ok.”

            Less was more. He had made it clear that he should speak as little as possible.

            Sam narrowed his eyes.

            “What are you doing here, anyway? Your room is on the other side of the base. And don’t say you’re getting food, too. Everyone knows you got your own kitchen because you’re Tony’s favorite.”

            Somehow, Bruce’s mind went even blanker than before. He felt the sweat seeping out of his skin, knew that that wouldn’t help anything, and panicked harder.

            “I, um. I’m just. I’m—”

            “Fine,” Thor said. “You caught us.”

            Bruce’s jaw dropped, but any words he might have said got stuck in his throat. He wasn’t ready for this. He didn’t know if he ever would be.

            “Banner’s helping me build a motorcycle,” Thor finished.

            Sam laughed, and Bruce’s muscles unwound themselves just a little bit. Thor was always saving the day.

            “A motorcycle?” Sam said.

            “Yes. I thought, if Rogers gets one, why not me? And mine’s going to be much cooler. It’s going to levitate and shoot lasers and go underwater—isn’t that right, Banner?”

            “Yep,” Bruce said, happy to play along with whatever Thor said, as long as it got Sam out of their hair.

            “Oh, I’ll have to see that,” Sam said. “But right now I have an appointment with this pizza and a Family Feud re-run.”

            “Good night, Wilson,” Thor said.

            “Good night,” Sam said, already walking down the hall toward his own room. “Oh, and don’t worry—I won’t tell anyone about your little secret.”

            “Good man!” Thor called after him.

            When he turned to look at Bruce and saw his face, Thor burst into laughter.

            “That one is cute, too!” he said. He touched his hand to Bruce’s cheek. “It’s all right, Bruce. Calm down.”

            Thor didn’t use his first name often, but every time he did, Bruce melted inside. He took a deep breath.

            “It’s all right,” Bruce repeated.

            “There we are,” Thor said.

            He dropped his hand to grab Bruce’s. They were so close now, the odds of running into someone else were practically nothing, but still, Bruce’s heart pounded in his chest as Thor led him down the hallway.

            As soon as they made it to Thor’s room and shut the door behind them, Thor laced his fingers into Bruce’s curly salt-and-pepper hair and kissed him, pressing him against the wall.

            Bruce forgot about Sam and the sample and his own name. In that moment, he even forgot to worry about the Hulk. He closed his eyes, slipped his hands to Thor’s waist, and let himself be happy.

 

...........................................................................................

 

_Quinjet, somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean_

            “What did Stark say these things were?” Thor asked.

            Bruce sat at the wheel, scanning the ocean below him as he did his best to fly the ship straight. He had hoped that after flying an alien ship on Sakaar without killing anyone, he might be better at this, but he was wrong. It was a bumpy flight.

            “He wasn’t sure,” Bruce said. “Which, for Tony, is saying something.”

            Somewhere around here, the Avengers were down there fighting off some creature that had risen from the deep. Or rather, the Avengers minus two. He and Thor were late to the party. They had fallen asleep in Thor’s bed and apparently slept through several alerts. Bruce couldn’t believe how careless and selfish they had been. He felt it deep in his gut, the throbbing dread that someone would get hurt just because he overslept.

            He was the strongest Avenger, after all. They needed him.

            “But he said they were big,” Thor said.

            “Very big.”

            “Which means they’ll probably want—”

            “The Big Guy, yeah.”

            Thor was silent for a moment as the water passed beneath them. Still Bruce did not see their teammates.

            “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Banner,” Thor said quietly.

            _If I turn into the Hulk again, Banner may never come back_ , Bruce had told Thor, way back on Sakaar. Ever since then, Thor had been nervous about him changing. Maybe he was right to be, but that didn’t matter when lives were on the line.

            “I’ll be fine,” Bruce said. “I turned into the Hulk on Asgard, and here I am.”

            “What if you don’t come back this time? It’s not worth the risk.”

            Bruce glanced at Thor, in the seat beside him. One thumb was worrying at his lip, and he stared out the window at the sky and sea stretching before them.

            Bruce reached over and grabbed Thor’s hand, laced their fingers together. He was bad enough at flying with both hands, and he probably shouldn’t try it with one, but this seemed important.

            “I’ll always come back to you,” Bruce said. “I promise.”

            He could tell Thor was not convinced. They both knew that if he changed, he no longer had a say in what he did. But Bruce had a feeling that he and the Hulk agreed on this one thing.

            Just then, the display screen flashed _incoming call_ , and in the next moment, there was Tony’s face. Bruce yanked his hand away from Thor’s and prayed that Tony was too busy to notice.

            “You two finally decided to show up?” Tony said.

            “Where are you?” Bruce asked. “I thought you said you were right here.”

            “Let’s think about this. We’re fighting sea monsters. In the ocean. You think maybe we’re…underwater?”

            “Of course!”

            “You’re right on top of us,” Tony said. “And we could definitely use the help.”

            The picture on the screen shook and fizzed as Tony’s head knocked around his helmet.

            “I’m on my way, Stark,” Thor said, already out of his seat and on his way to the rear of the Quinjet for a drop. Bruce put the ship in hover mode.

            “What about you?” Tony asked Bruce. “The brawly green giant could take these things out in a couple of hits.”

            Bruce glanced back at Thor, who paused on his way out and met Bruce’s eyes.

            “I don’t know, Tony,” Bruce said. “I don’t think he’s coming today.”

            “Well, keep trying,” Tony said. The sound of his blasters shooting in rapid fire rang through the Quinjet. “And tell Thor to hurry up.”

            The display winked out.

            “Thank you,” Thor said.

            “I’m not making any promises,” Bruce said. “If it gets too bad out there…”

            Thor smiled.

            “Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.”

            He slammed a fist into the button that lowered the rear ramp, and an impulse seized Bruce. He ran to the back of the ship and grabbed Thor’s face in both hands, standing on his toes to kiss him as hard as he could.

            When he pulled back, Thor’s eyes were wide in surprise. He bit his lip, and he winked, and he jumped into the churning water.

            Bruce stood in the open rear door, searching the water for any sign of what was happening below. Less than a minute later, the sky was alive with crackling tendrils of lightning, and thunder boomed so loudly that he felt it reverberate through his body. A smile touched his lips. Thor was all right.

            Suddenly, where there had been only waves, a huge head reared out of the water, almost the size of the Quinjet. It was dark and rough so that it almost looked like a rocky island, but with a huge gash through the middle, bristling with teeth as big as Bruce’s head.

            A bundle of thick tentacles, as rough as the head, broke the surface next, and Bruce’s heart fell through his feet.

            All tangled up in the tentacles, pulling and kicking and fighting with all his might, was Thor. Bruce could practically feel the strain of his muscles as he tried to keep the tentacles from crushing him.

            And then Bruce saw green.

 

            There were flashes, fragments, nothing more—the shock of cold at the deep ocean water, the snap of jaws nearly missing him. He saw a glimpse of Tony’s suit, and one of those same stony tentacles thrashing in the water.

            Then he woke up on the floor of the Quinjet, lying on his back, coughing up a lungful of water.

            People were leaning over him, but he couldn’t see their faces through the haze.

            Someone was pumping his chest, pushing the water out. Someone else gripped his shoulder.

            “Banner,” a third person was saying. He could see the lips moving. “Banner. It’s all right. It’s over.”

            The voice was deep and rich and warm. It pulled him closer to consciousness. The faces became clearer. Tony gripped his shoulder. Rhodey pumped his chest. And the voice…

            _Thor._

            Bruce jolted upright, choking out the last of the water. He was naked, he realized, and soaking wet, and freezing cold. But Thor was alive. And he himself had come back. It was all right. It was over.

            “Tell the Big Guy,” Tony said. “Maybe next time he should wait until you’re not at the bottom of the ocean to switch back.”

            Bruce rubbed his eyes, burning from the saltwater. Tony clapped him on the back.

            “Good to see you again, Bruce. Seriously.”

            Tony was probably his best friend in the world, and Bruce was touched, he really was, but right now, he only had eyes for one person. He looked at Thor, tried to transmit everything he wanted to say directly into Thor’s brain. _I’m sorry I didn’t mean to I’m so glad you’re alive look I came back I want to kiss you right now._ He hoped his eyes could fit all of that into the message.

            “You gave us quite a scare, Banner,” Thor said, reserved. Bruce knew that if they were alone, they would be grasping at each other, holding each other so tight.

            Sometimes, he thought, it really wasn’t fair. When Tony got back from a mission, Pepper could run to him and yell at him and hug him and kiss him and do whatever else she wanted to do. They were free.

            Bruce nodded.

            “Glad you’re all right,” he said. They stared at each other a second too long, so Bruce looked around the ship at his other teammates, Tony and Rhodey and all the rest of them. “All of you.”

            _Nice save,_ he thought, mentally rolling his eyes.

            Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Thor failing to stifle a grin.

 

...........................................................................................

 

_Avengers Base_

            Bruce lifted his head and looked around to make sure they were still alone. Thor pulled him back down by the collar of his shirt, laughing.

            “You worry too much,” Thor said. “I’m a 1500 year old god. I’ll know if someone is coming.”

            Bruce tried to relax. It was not so hard to do. It was a perfect day, with fluffy white clouds filling a blue sky and a breeze to keep them from getting too hot. They lay on their backs, spread out on a blanket on the roof of the base. Recently, they had been coming here a lot. Secret kisses in the lab and hands held for a few seconds in the hallway were something at least, and their nights together were beyond words in any of the twelve languages they knew between them, but it was nice to be together like this, out in the open, for God and the world to see. Theoretically. Bruce was still terrified of the rest of the team finding out and butting in with their opinions and their stares.

            He looked over at Thor, lying beside him. He wore a simple t-shirt and shorts. It was always jarring and strange and wonderful when he dressed like this. It almost made him look like a normal person. Not entirely, of course, because he still had the chiseled face and body of a Greek statue and the knowing eyes that could only come from 1500 years of life, but casual human clothes made him a little less overwhelming for Bruce.

            While Bruce watched him, the sun broke out from behind a cloud. It gleamed in the creases of the muscles of Thor’s exposed arms where the sweat pooled and made his short hair glow golden. He looked up at Bruce, squinting against the sun, and smiled softly. He reached for Bruce’s hand and squeezed it.

            Ok. So. Not actually less overwhelming at all.

            Consumed by the perfect moment, by the free air, Bruce threw himself at the man he loved so goddamn much. He pressed their lips together with urgency, hunger, and Thor answered in kind. Thor’s hands traced his face, his chest, his waist, his hips, and Bruce marveled that someone like Thor would ever touch him like this. Bruce’s life was supposed to be difficult and lonely and tragic. How could he be allowed to have something so good?

            “Oh my god,” squeaked a voice from somewhere to their left.

            Bruce sprang backward, away from Thor, like a frightened cat. In a split second, his heart crashed all the way to the ground from the highest place it had ever been. He looked around wildly for the person who had ruined his moment and, possibly, the rest of his life, too.

            The kid. Peter.

            “I’m so sorry, Dr. Banner, Mr. Thor!” Peter said, his voice shooting up another octave somehow. He wore his full Spider-man suit, but now he pulled off the mask. “I was just testing out some new upgrades from Mr. Stark, I didn’t think anyone would be up here—oh my god, I’m so sorry.”

            He stared at them, his mouth gaping.

            “Parker,” Thor said as he stood up and brushed himself off. “I. Um.” He cleared his throat.

            And that was when Bruce knew they were doomed. Thor, the one who always swooped in and saved him when he panicked, was shaken.  

            Bruce had to do something. He stood up, too, so he wasn’t the only one lying on the ground like a dumbass.

            “Don’t worry about it, Peter,” he said. “Not your fault. We shouldn’t have been…um…here.”

            “No, it’s totally—I mean, it’s not—” Peter stammered. He fumbled with his hands, trying to convey something that would make the situation less uncomfortable, and he came up with nothing.

            They were all silent for several long seconds.

            “So,” Peter said finally. “You two are—?”

            “Yes,” Bruce and Thor said at the same time, without hesitation.

            Something in Bruce’s chest jumped at the realization that Thor was just as sure about him as he was about Thor.

            Apparently, Peter felt the shift. He smiled his cheesy, innocent smile.

            “Well, I think it’s great,” he said. “It’s awesome, actually. And oh my god, am I the only one who knows? This is so cool!”

            “Look, Peter, I’m glad you’re so supportive and everything,” Bruce said. “But you can’t tell anyone. You understand?”

            Peter nodded emphatically, and his face turned serious.

            “Of course, Dr. Banner. I understand. I wouldn’t do that.”

            Bruce nodded, unsure of what to say now. He wanted to hide. The air didn’t feel so free anymore, it just felt vulnerable.

            “Anyway, I guess I’ll get out of your hair,” Peter said. “I mean, not that I think you’re busy—Which, I mean, not that I’m thinking about what you’re doing—”

            “Bye, Peter,” Bruce said before the kid busted a spring.

            “Bye, Dr. Banner! Bye, Mr. Thor!”

            Peter shot a web from his wrist onto the adjacent building, swung around the corner and out of sight.

            “I thought you would know if someone was coming?” Bruce said, now that they were alone again.

            Thor chuckled dryly. 

            “Well. You distracted me.”

            “What happens now?” Bruce asked.

            “We keep doing what we’ve been doing,” Thor said. “Nothing has changed.”

            They stood there, side by side, both looking up at the clouds, and Bruce knew they were both thinking the same thing.

            _Yes it has._

 

...........................................................................................

 

            Bruce fidgeted in his seat, sipping his cocktail faster than he probably should have. His eyes kept shifting to Peter, who stood on the other side of the room talking excitedly to Valkyrie, hands gesturing wildly. Whatever the kid was saying, Val didn’t seem to care much. She downed one beer after another and didn’t even look at him. Bruce would’ve laughed if he hadn’t been so nervous. Peter wasn’t exactly a guarded person—it wouldn’t be hard for him to let something slip accidentally.

            “Relax,” Tony said, throwing himself down on the sofa beside Bruce. “It’s a party.”

            “Ha,” Bruce said, in a pathetic attempt at a laugh. He cleared his throat and took another long swig of his drink.

            They had “parties” like this every couple of weeks, where everyone got together in the common area of the base, including those who lived elsewhere. It was supposed to be an opportunity to laugh and blow off steam after daily near death experiences. Tony liked to call it a team-building exercise, although most of the team just used it as an excuse to get wasted on Tony’s dime. Which, Bruce suspected, Tony enjoyed even more.

            Tony narrowed his eyes at Bruce.

            “All right,” Tony said. “Spill it. What’s wrong with you?”

            “I’m fine,” Bruce said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

            He probably should have chosen just one of the most common “something is bothering me, but I don’t want to tell you” responses, but here he was.

            “Hmm,” Tony said. “Ok. If you want to be a tight-ass all night, that’s on you.”

            He floated off to some other corner of the room.

            Bruce glanced around again. Everyone— _everyone_ —he knew was in this room. Including…

            Thor ambled up to him, Steve and Sam in tow. They seemed to be in the middle of a debate.

            “You’ll see,” Thor was saying. He turned to Bruce. “Banner, tell him my motorcycle can go underwater.”

            They all looked at Bruce expectantly.

            “Um,” he said. “What?”

            Steve and Sam burst into laughter.

            “I told you that didn’t make any sense!” Steve said.

            Thor nudged Bruce in the shin with his foot.

            “It’s ok, Banner, you can tell him,” he said. “Sam already told him our secret.”

            A jolt shot through Bruce, nearly ousting him from the couch, before he remembered their little meeting with Sam in the hallway. He cracked a smile.

            “Oh, well,” he said. “Guess the cat’s out of the bag. And, yeah, it goes underwater.”

            Thor beamed, and suddenly Bruce didn’t feel so tense anymore.

            They kept talking, Thor inventing new features for his bike and Bruce backing up each one. Eventually, they all settled in on the sofa and chairs around him. If Thor sat a little too close, his thigh pressing against Bruce’s, no one seemed to notice.

            Bruce was so amused by Thor’s growing tale of the world’s most advanced motor vehicle that he didn’t see Peter walking by until it was too late.

            “Hey, Spidey!” Sam called, gesturing to Peter to join them.

            Peter locked eyes with Bruce for a split second, and the kid’s face dropped immediately. He stood up too straight, his whole body stiff as cardboard.

            “What’s up, Mr. Wilson?” he said, clearly trying to keep his tone even.

            “You gotta cut it out with the mister thing,” Sam said. “It’s Sam. And you’re part of the team now, you don’t have to be so nervous all the time. Loosen up!”

            “Right,” Peter said, but nothing about his demeanor changed. His eyes kept shifting to each of them, restless, and lingering a second too long on Thor and Bruce every time.

            “So, do you know about this thing Thor and Banner have going on?” Sam asked.

            Bruce choked in the middle of a long drink.

            “Um,” Peter said. He stared at Thor and Bruce, wide-eyed, as if waiting for directions.

            Sam chuckled.

            “I’ll take that as a yes. Don’t worry, we all know. But I want to ask you, since you’re a science nerd, do you think it actually works, or are they full of shit?”

            “Are you…” Peter looked horrified. “Are you asking me how they…”

            _Shut up,_ Bruce thought. _Shut up, shut up, shut up._ If Peter had looked at him in that moment, he would’ve gotten the message loud and clear. Bruce’s eyes were lit like a fire.

            “How they built the motorcycle,” Steve said.

            Peter paused, his face screwed up in thought.

            “Is that, like, an old-timey euphemism or something?” he said.

            “A euphemism for what?”

            Bruce froze.

            _Please,_ he thought one last time. _Shut up._

            “You know,” Peter said, and for a second, Bruce thought that he was done, that it was over. But then: “Intimate stuff.”

            Sam and Steve looked at each other, then at Thor and Bruce sitting together on the couch. Bruce saw the exact moment they both realized how close he and Thor were.

            “Personally, I think it’s pretty offensive that you even asked,” Peter said into the tense silence.

            Bruce closed his eyes, took a deep breath. Chaos was taking over inside of him, and he could not let that happen.

            “That’s not what they were talking about, Peter,” he said.

            Peter’s face turned red as his Spidey suit.

            “Oh my god,” he said. “Did I just—I’m so sorry! I can’t believe this, I swear I thought—oh my god—”

            “What did the kid do now?” Tony asked, attracted to their corner of the room by Peter’s outburst.

            “Nothing,” Thor said quickly. He shot warning stares at Sam and Steve, who still wore shock and confusion on their faces.

            Bruce kept breathing deeply. Everything was falling apart so quickly. The walls of privacy were crashing down around them, leaving them exposed to whatever the outside world had to throw at them. Even if only three people knew, it might as well have been everyone. As soon as Peter caught them, it was done. Their secret life didn’t belong to just them anymore.

            And then Bruce realized.

            Peter already knew. Their secrecy bubble had burst. And nothing had changed about the way he and Thor felt about each other.

            Bruce looked over at Thor and felt a surge of warmth and bravery.

            _Might as well be everyone_ , he thought.

            He leapt up out of his seat, raising his voice loud enough that everyone could hear it over their chatter.

            “Listen! Everybody listen! I need to say something.”

            Every face turned to him. He looked down at Thor, who was more surprised than all of them. Bruce shrugged, and a smile curved Thor’s lips. That was all Bruce needed.

            “I—I mean—we,” the word sent his stomach fluttering, “have been keeping something from all of you. We should’ve come clean sooner, but. Well. Better late than never, right?”

            “What’s going on?” Rhodey called, a touch aggressively. Looking at the faces scattered around the room, Bruce realized that his build-up may have sounded too serious. Ok. Way too serious. These people heard the word secret and immediately thought of world-killing robots. Now Bruce felt foolish and small standing there. These people had so many more important things to think about than him.

            Thor stood up beside him.

            “This,” Thor said.

            Before Bruce knew what was happening, Thor’s lips were on his, pressing so hard against him that he bent over backwards.

            When Thor pulled away, Bruce felt the flush in his cheeks.

            “So, yeah,” he said, still looking only at Thor’s face. The rest of them might as well not have been there. “Thor’s my boyfriend.”

            Silence.

            More silence.

            Then:

            “Wooo!” From Valkyrie, lifting her beer bottle in the air. “Finally!”

            Laughter rumbled through the room.

           

            Gradually, everyone went back to their own conversations. Some people stared, as Bruce had known they would, but he found that he didn’t mind so much. Thor’s hand was in his, and he was invincible.

            When most of the attention had shifted away from them, Steve walked up and clapped a hand on both their shoulders.

            “Congratulations,” he said with a knowing smile, and he went back to sit by Sam.

            “You make a cute couple,” Tony said. “Bit of a height difference, but hey, if you’re into that.”

            Peter approached them last.

            “I’m really glad it worked out and everything,” Peter said. “But I’m still really sorry.”

            “Do not worry,” Thor said. “I believe you did us a favor.”

            He looked at Bruce then, and they locked eyes. Thor’s face was filled with such light and happiness that Bruce couldn’t have helped reflecting it back if he had wanted to.

            And why should they ever feel anything but light and happiness again? They were finally, totally, free.

 

...........................................................................................

 

            Later that night, after the party, Bruce lay wide awake in his own bed. Thor was splayed out beside him, asleep. Usually, they slept in Thor’s room because it was farther away from everyone else’s. There was less chance of getting caught. But now . . . 

            Bruce watched Thor’s chest rising and falling, watched his eyes scroll behind their delicate lids. He wondered what else would change now that they didn’t have to hide. Maybe they would go on dates like normal people. Maybe they would get to do more missions together. Maybe Thor would move in here permanently. It was the best room in the place, after all . . . Sam had been right about the private kitchen.

            Bruce smiled to himself. Whatever changed, he knew that it would be for the good.

            He snuggled closer to Thor’s side, wrapped an arm around him. He stretched out his neck to kiss Thor on his scruffy cheek.

            Yes. Everything was good.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm new to this, so please let me know what you liked or what i could do better next time!


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